Electronic calendar and diary

ABSTRACT

An electronic schedule calendar and diary for storing in an electronic memory a plurality of future calendar appointments and events for each of a plurality of daily, weekly, or other date interval periods, and enabling the selective retrieval and electronic display of said plural appointments and events for any selected time period. The electronic diary employs manually or remotely controlled entry of said future appointments and events in digital form; manually or remotely controlled correction and updating of said data; and manually controlled retrieval or readout into a visual electronic display. A time-of-day electronic clock may also be included together with an automatic alarm for providing an alarm for each selected appointment or even entered into the memory. In a systems version, a plurality of electronic diaries are employed with a central memory or monitor. Each diary is selectively placed in communication with the central memory for transfer of data therebetween.

BACKGROUND

It is often necessary for business persons, doctors, dentists, servicepersons and others to maintain a personal appointments or schedulecalendar on a daily or weekly basis in order to properly respond to aschedule of such appointments and events. In some instances, such timescheduling is performed by a secretary, dispatcher or other assistant;but most frequently, the person employs a hand written diary or calendaror schedule listing by dates of the various times of the appointmentsand events for future days or weeks. Periodic reference to such diaryfor each succeeding day reveals the appointments for that day. However,should the user neglect to consult his written diary, an important eventor appointment may be overlooked and forgotten.

Similarly in many businesses there is a need for scheduling the time ofcrews or teams of persons to properly service the needs of customer.These schedules are often handwritten, and are updated or corrected byradio or telephone instructions.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, these diary or scheduling functionsare performed electronically by supplying the user with an electronicmemory and display. In addition, these may be provided an automaticreminder or alarm for each such appointment or event, or for selectedappointments or events, whereby at each of the selected futureappointment times, an audible and/or visual signal is produced to remindthe user of this appointment or event.

Briefly, each electronic diary unit includes an electronic memory, adigital keyboard or other electrical entry, and an electronic display.For each future day, week, or other time interval, there is entered intothe memory all of the plural appointments or events by date andtime-of-day, and also entered is a code number designating the code ofthe person or occasion associated with that appointment or event. Thisstored digital data in the electronic memory may be selectively updated,retrieved and displayed at the convenience of the user. Thus, for anydate or interval, the user may interrogate his electronic diary anddetermine the plurality of scheduled appointments for that day or week,or selectively, those for any future day or week, as is needed.Accordingly, the user may conveniently determine his availability for afuture appointment time and may change or update his appointment orevent calendar as required.

To provide an automatic reminder of such future appointments and events,or selected ones, this diary also preferably includes an electronicclock together with comparison circuitry for coupling the electronicmemory and electronic clock to an alarm, thereby to provide an automaticalarm at the time of each, or selected ones, of the future appointmentsor events to remind the user of the appointment or event.

For system use by service businesses and others, a plurality of suchelectronic diaries are provided together with a centralized monitor andmemory. Each of the diaries are in communication with the centralmonitor for the transfer of information and data therebetween.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 is a perspective view, diagramatically illustrating the displaypanel and keyboard of a preferred embodiment,

FIG. 2 is an electronic block diagram showing the electrical circuitryin a systems embodiment employing entry by both keyboard and codereader, and

FIG. 3 is a simplified illustration of a diary page for receiving bothwritten and coded entry of future appointment data.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating radio communication between aplurality of electronic diaries and a central monitor and memory.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown an electronic calendar diary 10according to the invention comprised of a housing having a manuallyoperated keyboard with a series of rows of keys 11 to 13, for calendarentries of appointments in the future by month, day, and times-of-day,respectively; and an electronic display panel or screen 17 forselectively displaying the future days and the various times of futureappointments and events for those future days. The first row of twelvekeys 11 enables the user to enter or display the future month; the nextrow of thirty-one keys 12 enables the entry or display of the particularday of that future month; and the plurality of additional rows of keys13 enables the entry or display of a plurality of different futuretimes-of-the day corresponding to scheduled events or appointments forthat future day.

At the right of the keyboard, is provided additional keys for selectionof the function desired, including a key 14 for enabling "ENTRY" or"UPDATE" of data; a key 15 for "RETRIEVAL" and "DISPLAY", and a key 16for "ERASE". Still a further control key 19 is provided, labeled "CODE",for the purpose of enabling the user to enter into the memory anadditional code after each time of appointment, for designating theperson or place or other matter associated with that appointment. Aswill be described more fully hereafter, a written directory may beadopted by the user to assign an arbitrary code of two or more differentdigits to each of his different customers, patients, places, or other.This enables the user to record an identification of the event orpersons associated with each appointment or event, for later display. Anadditional key 18 enables the entry of a morning or evening designation,"AM or PM", into the memory for each time of appointment or event beingentered.

The electronic panel or screen display 17 in FIG. 1 may conveniently beprovided as a bank of light emitting diodes (LED's), as is well known,to provide a number display of the entries retrieved from the memory ofthe unit. As illustrated, the upper left of the display panel shows thenumbers for the future month and day being interrogated, e.g. Sept. 10or "9-10"; and below that date is displayed the times-of-day of thedifferent future appointments or events that are scheduled for thatparticular day, e.g. "1:00 PM, 2:30 PM, and 4:10 PM", as is shown. Atthe upper right of the display panel 17, there is provided a continualdigital clock readout of the present month and day, e.g. Sept. 1 or"9-1", and of the present time-of-day, "6:30 PM".

In operation, the user initially enters into the memory of the devicehis appointment schedule for each future day desired, by initiallydepressing the "enter" key 14 and then the appropriate "month" key 11and "day" key 12. Thereafter, he enters each of the proposedappointments or events for that selected day by depressing theappropriate ones of the "time-of-day" keys 13 followed by the "AM or PM"keys 18, and finally followed further by the "code" key 16. Afterdepressing the "code" key 16, he again depresses the same bank of "time"keys 13, but in this instance for the purpose of adding a "code" numberthat designates the purpose, person, place, or other data concerningthat particular future appointment or event.

After all of the future appointments have been entered, they may becorrected, updated, or erased for any day, at any time, by againselecting that particular month and day, and operating the "erase" key16 to erase; or the "enter" key 14 to correct previous entries, or toadd new appointment times-of-day.

Referring to FIG. 2, a preferred system includes both a digital keyboard20, a digital code reader 21, and a digital electronic memory 23 forreceiving and retaining all of the entered digital data pertaining tothe future appointments and events for each day period. In conventionalfashion, the keyboard 20 and memory 23 are coupled by suitableelectronic control circuitry 22 for enabling the keyboard 20 and/orreader 21 to selectively enter, update, or erase digital data in thememory 23, as well as to interrogate the memory 23 for reading out anyof the selected data to the visual digital display circuit 26, asdescribed above.

For providing the continual visual display of the present day andtime-of-day, there is provided an electronic clock chip 24 that iscoupled to the visual display panel 26 through a gate 25. Gate 25 isactivated on a recurring time basis by electronic control circuit 22.

For automatically providing an "alarm" upon the occurence of each of thescheduled future appointments and events, the changing digital output ofthe electronic clock 24 is continually compared to the digital codesstored in the memory 23 and corresponding to the future appointment andevents that have been "entered" into the memory 23. Whenever a"coincidence" occurs between the present or clock time and any one ofappointment times, a digital comparator circuit (not shown) in theelectronic control circuit 22 detects the coincidence of the two digitalnumbers and actuates the alarm 27 to either visually or audibly, orboth, provide an alarm to alert the user of the preveiously scheduledappointment or event.

As thus far described, the preferred device includes both functions ofan electronic calender diary for the selective entry and selectivedisplay of scheduled appointments in the future; and also the functionof an automatically operating clock and alarm that automatically signalsthe user whenever anyone of the scheduled appointments and events shouldoccur. In the use of the electronic calendar, the user may at anytimeenter, erase, or update his appointment schedule for any day in thefuture. He may also correspondingly read out and visually display hisschedule of appointments and events for any particular day or days. Inconnection with each such future appointment or event, he may also storein the memory an identifying code that will inform him of the person,place or occasion involved with that particular appointment.

Should additional data or information be required to be recorded inconnection with any of such appointments, it is, of course, possible toprovide a more extensive memory 23, keyboard 20, and display 26 toaccomodate the storage and readout of a good deal more informationregarding such appointment or event. However, in the interest ofproviding a less expensive and less complex unit that may bemanufactured in small size and be battery operated for the pocket orpurse, it is preferred to limit the capacity of the keyboard 20, memory23, and display 26 to the storage and entry of only the above mentionedbrief digital data for each appointment or event, and to also limit thecapacity of the calendar diary to the storage of such data for only afinite number of days of about two months or less. In the event thatadditional information is required to be remembered or stored for anyappointment or event, the user may employ a written diary, as generallyshown in FIG. 3, to supplement the capacity of the electronic diary.

Referring to FIG. 3, the pages 30 of the written diary may contain thedate 31, by month and day, followed by a listing or tabulation 32 ofonly those scheduled appointments or events that may require moreinformation than can be conveniently stored in the abbreviated memory 23of the electronic unit. In this manner the written or printed diary maybe used as a supplement to the electronic unit. To minimize the need forconsulting the written diary 30 in connection with scheduledappointments and events of a routine nature, those important events thatrequire added reference to the written diary page may be suitably taggedor identified in the electronic memory 23 by entering and storing agiving code number such as "9", following the appointment. Consequently,during readout of the appointments or events for any given day, thewritten diary pages need not be consulted by the user unless one of thescheduled appointments or events as displayed is followed by the codenumber "9".

In the event it is desired to employ a code reader 21 instead of, or tosupplement, the keyboard 20, the pages 30 of the written diary may beimprinted with a code field 33 at one corner, as shown in FIG. 3, withthe different spaces in the field representing different times-of-dayfor the appointments. The user may appropriately mark in the properspaces by pencil or pen corresponding to the appointments or events tobe scheduled, or may punch holes in such spaces. Insertion of such acoded record 33 in a slot 34 of the code reader 21 enables the scheduledappointments to be read and entered into the electronic memory 23 in thesame manner as entry using the manual keyboard 20.

It is often desired to provide centralized monitoring of the futureappointment schedules of a series of different persons so that thelocation of such persons on given days or times can be quicklydetermined where necessary from a centralized location. For example,where such electronic diaries are being used by a group of salespersonsto schedule conferences with prospective customers; or by a team ofplumbers, or other service persons, to schedule service appointmentswith customers at different locations. In these and many otherinstances, it is often desirable for a central office to be able todetermine the location of, or select that one of such persons havingunscheduled time on a particular day and time of day to perform servicefor a customer. According to the present invention this is performed byperiodically interconnecting a plurality of such diaries to acentralized memory 36 for transmitting the schedules of appointmentsdata in the memory 23 of each differents diary unit to the centralizedmemory unit 41 of a large scale memory or computer 36. To perform suchmonitoring, the centralized memory 36 is provided with suitable transmitinterfaces 35 having included interrogate means, whereby the memory 23of each electronic diaries is interrogated, in time sequence, to readout the stored data to the central memory 36. Such monitoring ispreferably performed on a regularly scheduled repeated basis to correctand update the time schedule for each (diary) person. As will beappreciated by those skilled in the art, each interface 35 additionallytransmits an identifying code to the central computer 41 to identifythat particular diary user and distinguish him from the others. At thecentral monitoring station, the stored data may be selectively displayedat 37 for any diary or in combination employed in many different waysdepending upon the needs of the system user. As indicated above, thiscentral monitor and display may be used to select any one or morepersons having available or unassigned free time on a particular dateand time. It may also be used in a cumulative many to determineefficiency; that is, to determine when the individual salespersons areoverscheduled or underscheduled. Other uses will also be appreciated bythose skilled in this art.

Those skilled in the electronic arts will appreciate that integratedcircuit chips to provide the functions described are presently availableon the open market, including integrated circuit chips for the memory23, electronic clock 24, digital comparator and control circuit 22, aswell as for the other functions described. Solid state visual displaypanels 17 and 26 are also presently available for the display usinglight emitting diodes, liquid crystal displays or others. It ispreferred that the individual electronic calendar diaries be constructedin miniaturized pocket size form adapted to be battery powered andportable to be carried in the pocket or purse in the same manner as awritten pocket diary. In such instance, to provide centralizedmonitoring of the memories of the individual units, the monitoringsystem may employ plug-in receptacles at the office or other fixedlocation to receive each unit and couple to the memory 23 through theinterface 35. In this manner, each user, such as a salesperson, mayperiodically insert his diary unit into an office plug-in receptacle totransmit the stored data in his memory unit 36 to that of the centralunit 36, and may then remove the unit to be carried by him on hisscheduled round of appointments for that particular day. Alternatively,or in addition to this system mode-of-operation, the central memory 36may also transmit future appointment data to the individual electronicmemory units of the users. In this manner, appointments for futureevents may be scheduled by the central office for any of the individualdiary users, along with a coded designation of the person, place, orpurpose for that future appointment. Should the user require additionalinformation regarding any such future appointment scheduled by theCentral Office, he may communicate back to the Central office bytelephone or radio to obtain such additional information.

Considering, for example in FIG. 2, a system of this kind used by aplumbing business having a central office, together with a crew ofplumbers that travel to homes and offices on a prescheduled basis toprovide plumbing services. Requests for such services are initiated bythe customers by telephone to the Central Office where the nature of theservice needed is discussed with the customer and a scheduledappointment for visit by a plumber is made. At the central office, aread out from display 37 from the central memory 36 reveals the entiretime schedules of all the crew of plumbers, whereby the Central Officecan immediately assign a plumber having unassigned available time forthat particular appointment. This assignment of an appointment for aparticular plumber at a particular time is made at the Central Office byentry into the Central processor and memory 36. Upon the next return ofthat plumber to the office, or upon his call-in for a future assignment,this appointment is conveyed to him by telephone or by plug-in of hiselectronic diary 39 to a receptacle coupled to the central memory 36. Ifthe appointment is conveyed to him by phone, the plumber manually entersthe date and time of the appointment into his portable unit 39 byoperation of the keyboard 20 as discussed above. Alternatively, theappointment date and time is automatically entered into the memory 23 ofhis diary unit by plugging-in his unit 39 into the fixed receptacleconnected by interface with central memory 36.

In today's mobile society, most of the service trucks for plumbers,electricians, taxicabs, and the like, are provided with mobile radiocommunication equipment with the Central office. In this event, thedigital appointment data may be transmitted by radio between the servicetruck and the Central Office as illustrated in FIG. 4. In this instance,a plug-in receptacle for the diary and a transmit coder may be providedin the mobile truck (not shown) and be coupled to the individualelectronic diaries by a radio transmitter-receiver and antenna 45 in thetruck. The scheduled appointment data in the electronic diary 39 maythereby be automatically transmitted from the mobile truck to theCentral memory 36 having transmitter-receiver antenna 46 for storage;and correspondingly, scheduled data from the central memory 36 may betransmitted by radio and antenna 46 to the truck for recording into thememory 23 of the electronic diary 39.

As will be appreciated by those skilled in this art in the light of theabove disclosure, many other applications of the electronic diary andsystem of such diaries may be made; as well as many changes in theformat and mode-of-operation of each diary for different uses.Accordingly, this invention should be considered as being limited onlyby the following claims:

What is claimed is: .[.1. An electronic diary, calendar, and clockcomprising: concurrently displaying the plural appointment times forthat day..].
 2. In the apparatus of claim .[.1.]. .Iadd.15.Iaddend.,said manually controlled entry means comprising a keyboard.
 3. In theapparatus of claim .[.1.]. .Iadd.15.Iaddend., said manually controlledentry means comprising a reader for a record bearing the code of saiddigital data.
 4. In the apparatus of claim .[.1.]. .Iadd.15.Iaddend.,said memory storing additional digital data identifying one of thepersons or purposes of said time of day calendar appointments, and saidentry means enabling the entry into said memory of said additionaldigital data.
 5. In the apparatus of claim .[.1.]. .Iadd.15.Iaddend.,said entry means enabling the selective visual indication on saiddisplay of actual time-of-day. .[.6. In an electronic diary andscheduling system, a plurality of satellite electronic diaries, eachhaving a digital memory for storage of data of future appointments andevents, digital entry means for said memory, and a digital display forreading out of said memory, a central monitor having a digital memoryfor centralized storing and display of the future appointments andevents from said plurality of satellite diaries, reversible means forselectively transferring data between said satellite diaries and centralmonitor, said central monitor transferring data including said futureappointments and events to the satellite diaries, said central monitorincluding an electronic clock for cumulatively determining the time ofday and date and including automatic means for generating reminderalarms of said future appointments and events..]. .[.7. An electronicdiary of future events and appointments comprising:an electronic visualdisplay for digital data, an electronic memory for selectively storingdigital data concerning plural future time-of-day events and calendarappointments and having capacity for storing a plurality of futureevents and appointments for each of a plurality of different days in thefuture, manually controlled electrical entry means for enabling theselective entry into said memory, at will, of said plural futuretime-of-day events and calendar appointments for each day, and enablingthe selective correction and updating of said stored digital data, atwill, and manually controlled electrical retrieval means for couplingsaid memory to said visual display to concurrently visually indicate theentire schedule of plural appointment times-of-day for any one of theselected present and future days..].
 8. In the apparatus of claim.[.7.]. .Iadd.14.Iaddend., said manually controlled entry means andmanually controlled retrieval means including a keyboard having pluralkeyboard switches having designations of time-of-day and day.
 9. In theapparatus of claim .[.7.]. .Iadd.14.Iaddend., a plurality of saidelectronic diaries, a central memory, a central retrieval means and acentral display; transmission means for coupling said plurality ofdiaries to the central diary for storing the plurality of future eventsand calendar appointments for said plurality of diaries in said centralmemory, said central retrieval means and central display enabling thecalendar schedule for any of said plural diaries to be selectivelyretrieved and displayed for any selected different day.
 10. In theapparatus of claim .[.7.]. .Iadd.14.Iaddend., a plurality of saidelectronic diaries, a central monitor for said plurality of diaries, andmeans for coupling said diaries to said central monitor for storing thecalendar schedule of said diaries in said monitor.
 11. In the apparatusof claim .[.7.]. .Iadd.14.Iaddend., a plurality of said electronicdiaries, and a central monitor having a memory for communication withsaid diaries, thereby to provide a central storage of the futureappointments from said plurality of diaries.
 12. In the apparatus ofclaim 11, means for reversibly communicating appointment and event databetween said diaries and said central monitor.
 13. In the apparatus ofclaim .[.7.]. .Iadd.14.Iaddend., means enabling the entry into saidmemory of a tag code associated with any one of said future events andcalendar appointments. .Iadd.14. A small personalized, self-containedelectronic diary for enabling a user to selectively enter, store,revise, and concurrently display a schedule of different appointmentsand events for each day or other extended period, and to enter, store,revise, and display such schedules for any one of a series of differentdays or extended time periods,said diary having all components containedwithin a small, easily movable housing, comprising: a multilineelectronic visual display for displaying a schedule of differentappointments on different lines of the display, an electronic memory forselectively storing digital data concerning plural present and futuretime-of-day events and calendar appointments for present or future timeperiods and having capacity for storing a plurality of such futureevents and appointments for each of a series of time periods in thefuture, manual controlled electrical entry means for enabling theselective entry into the memory, at will, of said plural present andfuture time-of-day events and appointments for each of said days or timeperiods, and enabling the selective correction and updating of saidstored digital data, at will, and manually controlled electricalretrieval means for coupling said memory to said visual display toconcurrently visually indicate each of the entire schedules for any oneof the selected present or future time periods on the multiple lines ofthe display. .Iaddend. .Iadd.15. A small, personalized, self-containedelectronic diary for enabling a user to selectively enter, store,revise, and concurrently display on a multiple line electronic display,a schedule of different appointments and events for each day or otherextended time period, and to enter, store, revise, and selectivelydisplay such schedules for a series of different days or extended timeperiods in the future, said diary having all components contained withina small, easily movable housing, comprising: an electronic clock forcumulatively determining the actual date and time-of-day as a number offunctions including minutes, hours, days, and month, an electronicmemory means for storing a plurality of time-of-day appointments foreach of a plurality of said days or time periods, including those of thepresent and the future, manually controlled means coupled to said memoryfor selecting, at will, each of the present and future days or timeperiods, individually, and for entering and storing in said memory forthat selected day or time period, digital data corresponding to aplurality of different time-of-day events and appointments, saidmanually controlled means including manually controlled correction andupdate means for selectively changing and updating, at will, in thememory the digital data for any given appointment or event time-of-day,for any of the present and future days or time periods, thereby toenable the schedule for any of said days or time periods in said memoryto be corrected and rendered current at any time, said manuallycontrolled means including manually controlled retrieval means forselectively accessing said electronic memory, at will, for any one ofthe plurality of days or time periods, and for reading out the storedschedule of plural appointments and events for that day or time periodto said electronic display for concurrently displaying the pluralappointments and events on the multiple lines of the electronic display..Iaddend.